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Background
Mint Season 4 episode 21 welcomes Queen George, the modern jazz-pop artist who’s been publicly, yet thoughtfully experimenting with web3 primitives since April 2021 in an effort to find and build a collector base.
We explore a new funnel and interesting case study on how she growth hacked *120* collectors by minting tickets as NFTs for her live concert at Eth Denver.
In this episode, we discuss:
- 02:00 – Intro
- 07:36 – Experimenting in Web3
- 13:49 – NFT Ticketing, Metamask, and Eventbrite
- 20:17 – Your New Single “If I Ever Go Down”
- 30:30 – Crypto QR Codes: The Funnel
- 33:52 – Why Doing Tickets as NFTs is Important
- 37:09 – How Crypto Provides Better Fan Based Data To Artists
- 45:57 – What are the Biggest Challenges Getting into the Space?
- 49:25 – Building a Mainstream Audience
- 50:47 – First Time at a Crypto Conference: Biggest Takeaways
- 53:57 – Queen George’s Thoughts on Web3
- 59:12 – Outro
…and so much more.
I hope you enjoy our conversation.
Support Season 4’s NFT sponsors!
1. Coinvise – https://coinvise.co
2. Polygon Studios – https://polygonstudios.com
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Queen George, welcome to mint.
Queen George: Thank you. Thank you so minty fresh in here.
So minty fresh.
Queen George: So minty.
How are you doing?
Queen George: I’m doing so well. We are on our last day of Denver, of eth Denver, and I just feel like I have flown into a different country.
What country is that
Queen George: A country that is brand new and I can’t tell anyone about yet. That’s how it feels.
Wait, can you tell us a little bit about it?
Queen George: Okay, so you know, we just started you already want to start this year with me? You don’t I mean?
How are you doing? How are you feeling?
Queen George: I am feeling very well. I am feeling really good. I just drink my coffee. So, we’re doing well.
I feel the voice is warm.
Queen Gorge: The voice is warm. Yeah. The voice is like is bubbly.
And you have such a raspy voice. So, you need the warm mint, the warm mint
Queen George: The warm mint. Yeah, the warm Earth is really doing wonders for me. Yeah, I feel very, very good. Really happy to be here. Happy to be on mint.
Intro
Tell us about yourself. What does the world need to know about Queen George?
Queen George: What the world needs to know about Queen George is that she is my alter ego. Let’s start there. She’s very much me. I mean, I created her we created each other, we need each other. But she is the version of me that has no bounds, knows no bounds, knows no limitations. And is absolutely capable of anything new and completely detached from old ways of thinking or doubt. Anything that can hold you back. Queen George just looks at smiles at, empathizes with, moves on and is the fearless side of me. Obviously, it is it is me we’re not dealing with that double personality. But it is my artistic expression of a version of myself that knows no bounds, which is really has been very critical in my art ever since I discovered that side of myself. I want hopefully for people to get to know that part in themselves as well. Upon getting to know me and me getting to know them. Because we all have it. I’m also very, a very spiritual person and very into the things that, you’re into mindfulness and I believe that we are more control than we think. And Queen George symbolizes that artistically and spiritually for me, in many ways.
You know, for whatever reason, now that I’m hearing you talk, and we talk a lot like you should have your own podcast. I think you have such a soothing voice.
Queen George: Thank you.
And that gets exemplified in your singing but how’d you get into crypto? Well, I guess is a story of me red pilling you?
Queen George: There it is. Yeah, I mean, it’s a funny little twist you did there because you are the person that put your hand out. And when just trust me, which is something that you know, in good old fashioned music industry, someone puts out their hand and says trust me, you go. Hold up. Who are you? What are you What are your intentions? Where’s the loophole? And in this situation in my introduction to web three, you are not only someone so near and dear to me in my life, I mean music and web three aside, that’s all-beautiful bonus. But you are one of the only people that have been able to go okay, when you said trust me and for me to be completely blind, and understand that it’s okay not to understand. Just be there, just show up. And you’ve been so critical and that for me. And that’s transcended past web three. Let me tell you, because seeing how this has unfolded, although it is so early for me. It has given me a lot of faith that way. Maybe I should go to more uncharted territories, because there is so much there. And so yeah, to trace it back to your question. You did Red Pill me, but we started about April of last year, April 2021. We said, Let’s just try something, we made it really simple. We said, what am I good at? I am good at performing, right? I am good at making the people in front of me feel wanted warm, loved, present. I know that I can make them cry and make them laugh all in 20 minutes. And that is a gift that I do not take for granted. And I’m so happy to bring to this space. So, we just kept it really simple. We said what do we do with that? Let’s put on a concert. So, it was COVID people were down, people really down. And we said let’s just put on a virtual concert. So, I hired a full-blown production team, rented out a local rehearsal studio in the valley. We love repping the valley in the valley.
Shout out to the valley.
Queen George: Shout out to Northridge, shout out to Tarzana. So rented out a studio there called Pop studio, wonderful place. And we just put on a production we just created this opportunity to hopefully get in front of people and the way that this you know, went hand in hand with web three with just my first attempt in this space was that we tried to sell tickets as an NFT. I don’t know what took me and when you know, no one’s done this before. I said, perfect. I want that one. Yeah, I want that one. And I’m done to flop but I am down to just say we tried it. And it was so fun to try. I that was also a learning by doing experience. I don’t listen, I have one major problem. Things go in one ear out the other. I listened to your feelings all day. And I will empathize with you and, and try to hear as much as possible. But when it comes to life experiences, I don’t know what you’re talking about until I did it myself. So, I was like, Cool. Let’s just also all this one. We tried to sell these tickets as NFT’s. My fan base was like for the love of God, what do you want from me? What do you want from me? I just want to see you saying, I don’t know what this link is. I don’t know. What is an open scene?
What is a meta mask?
Queen George: What is a meta mask? I already have to wear a mask. You also want me to get on a meta mask, leave me alone. Right? So, there was a lot, there were a lot of hurdles, a lot of hurdles, which is fine. I mean, it was the first time we ever anyone ever tried anything like this.
So, for context really quick.
Queen George: Yes.
This was taking place during COVID?
Queen George: Taking place during.
Where there were no live concerts in person?
Queen George: Yeah, no life concert.
And you had an itch to scratch where you want it to perform live.
Queen George: That’s it.
Experimenting in Web3
And you had been writing a lot of music during the off time, right? From what I remember. And you’re like, how can I grow my audience? How can I tap into this world of crypto of experimentation and try something different? It flopped.
Queen George: It flopped. I mean, have you ever belly flopped into a pool I have but you were with friends. So, you didn’t want to show that your stomach was right or in pain.
I have
Queen George: So, you can’t get what you eat. you guys.
And I used to be 230 pounds. So, when I used to, when I belly flopped into things.
Queen George: they barely flopped back out, you know what they say you smile at life, it smiles right back at you. So that was exactly what didn’t happen for us. It didn’t smile back at us. But I kept smiling. And then we went back to the drawing board after that concert. You’re exactly right. By the way, I was just in the time in the COVID era, I was just writing. I was so used to performing. I’ve been on stages since I was seven years old. I mean theater, jazz bands. Like I was just super competitive. And I loved it. And that’s all I did when kids were like at the mall. I was at rehearsal till 10pm. And that was just my fuel. And it has never changed. I am 25. And it the same thing fuels me and gas prices have went up. They have especially in LA and I still need the same fuel. So yes, yeah, my taste is expensive. But my point in all of this is that after our concert, I went to France, I spent the summer in France worked on my first project, worked on my first album, it was a big point for me to find my sound. I also you know, it was in the back of my head after our little concert flop that I knew I needed to get back into this space, and bring my own ethnicity and authenticity to it. And going to France was a big part of that. Going to France and working with people who not all of them, you know, had great English and we just, that made the musical experience so much more bold. I mean, we just worked and we couldn’t necessarily justify our thoughts and ideas. So, if the music wasn’t it, it wasn’t it. You moved on to the next idea if it didn’t speak and could not transcend language and mentality, different cultural mentality. It didn’t work. And so, what that left us with was a beautiful, beautiful, like, package of songs that were so influenced by different cultures and backgrounds. And that’s what I have in my hand now and then when you know I can back to LA, I called you and I said, Adam, I need to play this music. I think this is how I want to enter web three. I think this is, I don’t think I know, I could play this in any room and go, I know that I left who I am there. And it’s more than just music because yeah, I’m a trained jazz singer. But I’m also Israeli and also French. And we speak so many languages at home. So, it was really, it is really important for me to bring that into crypto and to bring culture out of people and make this a very inclusive and diverse environment, just by bringing what I was raised. Like not thinking too hard. I think that’s the biggest thing. Not, that’s what I’m learning in web three as well. Not thinking too hard. Look in the mirror and just write down what you see.
Yeah. You know, this NFT concert that we attempted to do. You very much led. We built an entire site around it. Yeah. We had graphic art around it. By the digital artists. That’s nice. Yeah. It was all, it was all in theme around this new song that you were about to release. Was a song again?
Queen George: Champaigne problems.
Champaigne problems. And we did a drop, where we had different tiers of access and utility to the ticket that you would purchase. And they all range in different prices. I think at the end of the day, there was like four or five, six tiers. There was a one of one, and then there were limited versions of the rest was like a 25 out of 25, an addition of 50 and additional 100.
Queen George: We really went for this. I mean, we like you said we built the whole site around it. We built it as if 100,000 people were going to be watching, but I think that that should always be the precedent of how we work. Yeah, I mean, it flopped. But we did it. And because if it did, what if it didn’t?
What if didn’t flop? What if it actually worked? And what if we were actually able to sell tickets, right, and you’re able to actually get a higher percentage or to share around it, and you’re able to throw really cool live performance around it. But the problem was the biggest problem. And this is part of why I want to do this, like this case study around you is because we’re documenting your early steps into crypto as a brand-new comer, right. And we’ll get more into what that journey was like post April 2021. But the biggest problem that we had at the time is we were doing things very manually, we didn’t have a ticketing platform, that was an NFT. Had NFT as the infrastructure underneath the hood, right? So, we’d have to, we had to do everything in upload everything one by one on open sea. I remember we tried wearable; we tried all these other mints able.
Queen George: And it tried us.
And like, and we spent maybe like $1,000 on gas fees.
Queen George: I didn’t even know what a gas fee was.
Yeah, I was just like, clicking away. I was like, fuck it. Like, let’s try to see if we can make this happen. And it flopped. I think the tickets are still on the market.
Queen George: They’re still there.
They’re still there. And they’ll forever remain there.
Queen George: I’m never taking it down and they’re staying there. I love I just for whatever it’s worth, it was so cool that we could have put our mark on that. I just say we tried it. I think that’s all this comes down to. And for me a big deal was stripping the ego away, which is a very traditional music industry web two way of thinking of like, oh, you need a team, and you need to strategize and you will have one shot. That’s just not true in this space. And it’s so exciting. Because you could just experiment 100 of times.
it’s early enough where you can throw shit at the fan.
Queen George: Exactly. And I would even argue that that’s also true in traditional music industry, in the traditional music industry. We are so caught up in our ego that we don’t just try things. And I’ve gotten so much more confidence to just try. But yeah, it all is still up there. And that will be very cool to look back at.
Yeah, I feel you.
Queen George: it is very cool.
NFT Ticketing, Metamask, and Eventbrite
Beyond us trying to like manually do the entire process listening everything in open see building the site. Another big issue that we had was with the unlockable content. So, what does that mean? Every NFT or you know, all NFT’s can have like an unlockable content once collected purchases in and can reveal something secret specifically to them. Right. And we try to like, again, like bootstrap it in a way where they bought the NFT. And then they’d have to go to Eventbrite with the code in the NFT, or something of that nature, and then they could register for the event officially. And that was our way of trying to collect addresses and emails at the same time to build a database of anonymous people online. Right. But that flopped, also, right. I think that entire, like 10 step process of just getting a ticket was just so convoluted.
Queen George: it really was a convoluted process and, you know, in real time, would you go through a 10-step process for someone you don’t know?
No, no, no.
Queen George: I don’t think so. So, I would.
I maybe, I’m a little bit different, maybe because I have curiosity. And I feel like I enjoy going through those steps but I’m not the example. A lot of the people that you were promoting the event to online, they hit you up even in your comments are like what the hell is a Meta mask? Why don’t need to spend this much money on gas fees? All I want to do is just watch you perform.
Queen George: Right? Well, what I’m learning now actually, I’ve been learning this weekend in Denver, just there talking to a lot of people in absorbing that, you know, my goal till now was okay let me bring my normal supporters and fans into this space. And I’ve been spending so much brain fuel, trying to figure out how to cross those two worlds instead of just embracing what this current world has to offer. I feel like I was forgetting how early we still are and that it’s just so important to foster the community here and still give both communities what they want. If that original fan base of mine receives me in a way that they’re comfortable with, then I will give them what they are comfortable with. And if web three until something totally different, then I will learn what they need and give them what they need. One day with or without my efforts, they will meet in the middle because that’s where we are headed. So, I think it’s been such a big shift for me just in the last few days like to understand that I don’t need to try to save the world and connect my two worlds. Just give every individual world what that world wants and needs. And let them discover me in a way that is comfortable for them in the way that you go to a different country and speak their language. You don’t go in assuming that they are going to understand what you’re saying. So, I think that analogy has helped me a lot.
Yeah, yeah. So again, the campaign flopped. We ended up just pivoting to Eventbrite. We had the live show, you hosted the live show. It was a great live show. I was able to watching person, which was a lot of fun.
Queen George: That was funny. I mean, we have just a few people in the room. Yeah, there were like, I think golf club.
Yeah, there was like 100 people online 120 People online watching it, which was more than we expected. We just wanted to create, like, you just want to create good content.
Queen Geroge: on stage.
And just get on stage and perform and just show your heart out to the world.
Queen George: I’ve had the same rule since I was 12. It’s two people or 2000 or 200,000.
Fast forward now. You started April 2021, got into crypto. What has happened since as an independent music artist coming into the space?
Queen George: Yeah. So fast forward from April, right? We covered this. I spent the summer in France, this album, came back with a body of work that I felt would really fit in the space, kind of back to the drawing board. Spent a lot of time baking, thinking, learning, reading, seeing what other people were doing, getting really inspired by other artists in the space. And then what was it like? Was it December, we minted my first song champion problem. The song that we wrote on for the live concert.
Which by the way, just to give more context, we did have audio snippets for each ticket, too. But it wasn’t the full song.
Queen George: No.
It wasn’t the full song. So, around December, you minted that song?
Yeah, I minted my first collection.
Okay.
remember? We did the.
Oh, that’s right. Didn’t you do the addition of 10 on open seat about champagne problems. Right.
Queen George: We did that. And, again, like still not much movement. But again, after everything that I had been learning, I realized that I just need to myself, step into this space, get to know people organically. I’m a very social person. I like people. I like strangers. And I’m okay with never seeing them again, because I’m romantic like that when it comes to people. So, so I realized, you know, I’m just going to start minting every release of mine, just so that I can learn by doing as I said, that is how I process that is how I understand and simultaneously, start getting on Discord, start spending more time on Twitter just a little bit more in my day, in the same way that they tell you. You’re not just gonna lose 30 pounds in a month. You can’t just change your diet overnight. I couldn’t change my diet overnight. That’s not who I am. I want this to be authentic. So, I started to spend more and more and more time every day by myself in the morning. And I made it a point to just.
Experiment to learn more.
Queen George: And see what other people were doing. The way that people speak in this community, all while also minting my last three releases. So, I said okay, the supporters, the friends, the community will come if I just actually engrained myself in a way that is natural for me, which is what I want. The same way that you don’t make a best friend overnight, you know, so have a lot of faith in that in that process now, so that’s kind of where I am at now. Fast forward to literally last week. Last Friday, February 11, I released a song called if I ever go down that I wrote in Tel Aviv with some awesome writers. I have the wonderful Omer Fetti who is like, we’ll always be like family. We love Omer. And he’s playing guitar on it. He graced that song with his gift And I released it just as a guitar vocal record. And it was right before Denver. And I came here to perform, you know your event which was so much fun. And right before I got on stage, we said you know what, let’s just mint this thing. And let’s just so
Your New Single “If I Ever Go Down”
Now we’re like taking three steps ahead. You’re right. You came out with if I ever go down, you also came out earlier with good mourning.
Queen George: I did right before if I ever go down was good mourning. And that’s m o u r n I n g, which is about the loss of someone in your life. Yeah, loss of love.
So, I want to before we even get into eth Denver for a minute, right? Because if I ever go down is actually a really pivotal moment in your NFT career. or numerous reasons, but you started off doing the NFT concert. Try to sell like 150 Something tickets, right as NFTs flopped. Then you came out with champagne problems.
Queen George: The collection.
The collection. You did 10 editions right for anyone like point one each, point one eth. I collected one. I don’t think we haven’t checked what the status.
Queen George: I have two, give it someone else.
Okay, amazing.
Queen George: Yeah. I was just so excited.
Awesome. And then and then that was an open scene. Okay, let’s re strategize.
Queen George: Correct.
Let’s take good morning and put that on Zora.
Queen George: Yeah. Try something else, we would see what else works
Okay. And that was, what. One of one?
Queen George: That was one of one.
Right. And I low key collected that one too.
Queen George: You’re such a real one.
I don’t know. I just love your music. Okay, so.
Queen George: I appreciate you so much.
That was on our Zora. And then, really, okay. He came up to me, we’re like, okay, we gotta do something bigger now. I was okay. Eth Denver was coming up. And for a long time. We’ve been talking about how you can ingrain yourself more into the crypto community, right? And just be a listener be a contributor. And then you got to have WBN. So, what was that like?
Queen George: It was exciting to know that I, it was like a kid in school, who finally has a lunch table to sit up. Who was a kid in school kind of sat alone for a little while. Who finally was like, Oh, cool. I have people to sit with. And even though none of them are talking to me yet. That’s cool to sit at this table
Where you get your Lunchables just like in the cafeteria with your milk.
Queen George: And you know, one day you’ll start sharing your food with someone and one day you’ll make a good friend out of it. I was just so happy to have a table to sit out in middle school, you know, as a funny full circle as a kid who not, not often did I have a table to sit at. I sat with my music teachers very often this FW felt like that. It was just cool to like, enter a community. And it was cool to go to their event yesterday. Like as I said, I love these people. So, it was cool to meet everyone in person. But yeah, I ended up WB. And then like you said, I said, I gotta do something interesting. I think now that I can hold my own a little bit more in this space. What can I do that is unique to me. And that’s when if I ever go down, came around, now with the release of that and then Eth Denver directly to follow.
So, talk about, what is if I ever go down? About Yeah.
Queen George: If I ever go down? Well, the full sentence of that is asking someone, looking at someone and going if I ever go down, will you stay around? That is literally the chorus of the song. It is asking, Will you stick around when I’m not at my best when I’m performing for only two people, when I am not this? Shawn Tos onstage with these frilly gloves and a big personality and making you feel warm and welcome. What about when I need that? Can you give that to me? That you know as artists, we stand on a stage there’s an audience in front of us but there is an invisible wall, in acting they’re called the fourth wall. There’s this invisible wall between us and them all the time. And I felt that since I was a little kid because I’ve been on stages for so long. And you I always have this this wonder in my stomach when I’m on stage like why are these, look at these people they love me, look at these people that got in an Uber, they parked, they made arrangements, they got dressed that they’re all here for me. And that’s not a given right but we’ll the second that these lights, the house lights come on, I get off and I’m just one of them again. Are they going to love me that much? Are they going to be there for me that much, is any and you know romantically are any of these people? Or if this person, if there’s someone that I lowkey love in the crowd, and I want them to love me back romantically or is anyone going to be willing to pass that fourth wall in between us and say, you’ve given me that warmth? I have something to give you too, because as a performer you feel like you’re always providing that. Right. So that’s what that song is about. It was just a very honest question, you know, and it was important for me to put it out also for the music itself to be so raw, you know, almost playing it so raw, we barely touched it, my vocal was just like a one take. Like as if I was telling someone, I love them, it felt like a diary entry when I recorded it, it was just here it is, cool. So, if I’m asking you if you’re going to be your flaws and all, here’s to actually one take vocal. That’s what that song is about. And it was very important for me to make that a pivotal point in my web three journey, to make my entrance, my own kind of personal, unique entrance into web three, be very vulnerable, and one that is honest. And one that people can relate to. I mean, forget if you’re a musician, and you can understand the school, but I think all of us go through this. Like we all have this deep, silent fear of are you going to be here when I’m not doing well? And it’s a it’s just a question I like to ask. But then we got back to the fun music at your show. So.
Yeah, so here comes the Eth Denver, if I ever go down.
Queen George: Here comes Eth Denver.
If I ever go down came out. This past Friday, but the Friday before that.
Queen George: Correct.
In preparation for Eth Denver.
Queen George: Kind of on the fly. It’s just an idea though.
Yeah, like, okay, Eth Denver was coming around. We talked about engraining yourself into the community, meeting more people, right, making more friends, helping other people learning about other projects. And we decided to try the NFT concert again. Right. But this time
Queen George: Is not going to give up on that NFT concept.
And I’ll tell you why. Because I think it’s such an interesting use case. It’s something that I’ve entertained in my head a lot. And a lot of what I talked about on the podcast is how can you make it as least threatening as possible for someone to join your community?
Queen George: I love that question. Yeah.
Right. It’s something that I continuously think about, and how can you give before you take? Right? And to that extent, we tried something new. We hosted an event Eth Denver on February 15. It was called the web three creator event. Very broad, very standard.
Queen George: Oh, you create great?
Great, come and create as a very broad word too, right. A creative entrepreneur can come in many different forms. And that was the intention to make it broad in general and see what comes.
Queen George: It brough a very cool crowd.
Right? It did breed. It really did. And before we get into like the details of the event, remember last time, April 2021, we had a big issue that we couldn’t really do what we wanted to do online, we had a platform issue, right? Not only were gas fees really high on Ethereum to mint a ticket. But I even think we gave too many people too many options to a ticket.
Queen George: I think we’ve invited them a little just out of sheer excitement.
Yeah, think about it when you go to like the crypto.com arena. Okay. And you go and buy a ticket to watch a show. How many tickets do they have, if not different seats? Right? It’s very, like general admission or VIP? Or like.
Queen George: Pay depending on where you sit.
Right, right. And I think one of the issues, one of the mistakes that we made was we issue too many different types of tickets with too many different types of utilities. When we forget, the real utility is just coming to watch you perform.
Queen George: Exactly. And like that initial transaction of you know, the NFT being the ticket is already one that is complicated. So here we are with 10 Different options like Oh, but no pressure.
So, we put together this event, I guess, mint, the podcast, along with some friends of mint, from Polygon studios bonfire. Shout out to all of those people for helping make this this this event a reality. We use dystopia labs, this platform called impish, which is an NFT ticketing platform. Probably the most simple ticketing experience I’ve ever been a part of better than Eventbrite. Better than buying something at the crypto.com arena better than.
Queens George: Better than any live cons.
Yeah. Yeah. It’s like four clicks through your wallet of signing signatures. And it’s yours. And every single NFT had your logo on it. Okay, which was a Queen George NFT.
Queen George: And just to make this clear, every single NFT by that we mean every single ticket.
Yes, every single ticket had your logo on it, right? Just like any other ticket in the physical world or digital world, non on chain would kind of look and feel like, through that we got between I think 150, 200 people, something like that sign up, share their email, and their wallet address, right. And it acted as like a top-level funnel. They kind of start spiraling in creating you a community, right? So, the cool thing about it was you’d come on impish, you’d connect your wallet, you sign a signature, you’d claim a ticket, right? From there. You’d wait to come see perform live in person. And the cool thing about this was and I’d love for you to take the stage but coming from my point of view like a practitioner’s point of view of like talking to a lot of people Seeing what type of strategies creators have in building an online community around their collectors. I thought this was very unique because it was effortless. It was risk free.
Queen George: And it was super inviting.
It was very inviting. And it worked out because throughout the event we had between like 150 200 people circle in and out. Yeah, right. And not to say that, like another event hosted another event, or another company hosted another event after us. We invited even more people in afterwards.
Queen George: This is a super welcoming experience from start to finish.
Crypto QR codes: The Funnel
And what do we do at the event with a QR code?
Queen George: Well, first of all, just to touch on everything that you just said, like I’ve been to a lot of shows I’ve done a lot of shows and nothing was as seamless or warm and welcoming as this experience. I mean, I’ve definitely found how I want to give out tickets from now. Yeah, I want people to go to know that they are wanted there, in the same way that I make them feel that when I’m on stage, this was the first time that that same warm that I feel you know is going on between us in while the music is happening. This is the first time that that translated into the transactional process. The part that’s not fun, was suddenly kind Yeah. So that was really important. And I think there’s a lot to take part in in that so amazing job but you’re what did we do with the QR codes? We printed I mean, hundreds of QR codes, big small. And there were two QR codes. There was a purple one. The purple one was for the one of one that I minted right before I got on stage. If I ever go down, which we could get a little more interesting. Sure. And then the black one was for my Discord is to join my community like what you hear cool. You don’t, I’m just so happy you showed up. So that was the vibe and with that, we put those little babies up all over the venue. I mean, a couple on every table I’ve taped him to the wall
I feel that for the people that need is like to clean up the event afterwards.
Queen George: I feel so bad.
Yeah, there were so many laminated QR codes,
Queen George: I put a huge one on the beer draft box. There was another poster and I asked if I could cover it. And he said no. So, we just took that poster off. So that’s all that and they were everywhere, just with the hopes of like I just wanted people to have fun and if they did, here is, everywhere around you is an opportunity to connect if you’d like to and being on stage knowing that that was possible. It was so it was so next level.
What’s up guys, Adam levy here. Sorry for the quick pause I wanted to give some love to our two NFT sponsors that are making this episode a reality. They are coin buys and polygon studios. On coin buys you can create a personal or community own social token on Ethereum or polygon. Coin buys also helps you create incentives through token rewards and bounties, NFT business models and bought integrations for discord. Discover more today by visiting coin buys.ko polygon Studios is the gaming and NFT arm of polygon who’s focused on growing the blockchain gaming and NFT industry while bridging the gap between web two and web three gaming. The polygon studios ecosystem comprises highly loved blockchain games like open sea Upshot, Aba Gottschee, Zed run, sky Weaver, decentral land and decentral games. If you’re a gamer builder or NFT creator looking to join the polygon studios ecosystem. Get started today by visiting polygon studios.com. Alright, back to the episode so there’s layers to why this is so important. I don’t know if you’ve had the aha moment yet as to why this is so cool. Yeah, well
Queen George: Maybe I will on my flight today.
Why Doing Tickets as NFTs is Important
Yeah. I think you’re about to have it right now and I’ll share with you like the big picture behind why doing tickets as NFT’s are so important. Okay. And again, back to the actual process of claiming a ticket. It was on polygon. So, platform actually ate up the transaction fees. They’re pennies on pennies, it’s like nothing. Okay. You got a ticket minted it would show up in your wallet, okay. You would then come to the event, and you’d watch you perform. A collector of yours would come watch you perform now. Okay, and they can decide whether they fall in love with you, they enjoy the music. Prior to you basically going on stage we minted the one of one on Zora.Ko and before you did like to intro songs, and then you talked about yourself and you announced this next song, I actually just meant it on chain, purple QR codes you can check it out if you feel, if you feel interested. Otherwise, join my Discord. I’d love to collaborate. I’d love to have fun and
Queen George: Otherwise have a bagel and dance and I’ll never see you again and that’s okay too.
Yes. Yes. Which was also fun. We had like what? Not through nine 9am to 11am was just like free brunch, coffee, doughnuts, fruit, vegetables, whatever.
Queen George: Yesterday was just music. It was just music.
It was just music and a lot of like-minded people listening to music and enjoying. So, people join your discord. It works people actually join your discord. I think what we had like 50 people or so join your discord from that room. So not a bad like conversion rate from acquiring a ticket to then coming to the event watching perform and then wanting to join your discord from there on out.
Queen George: And importantly, it’s very, very important for me to add that in a way that felt very authentic.
Very authentic.
Queen George: It felt seamless and really aligned with the way that I like my live shows to go with the feeling I like my people to have and that it was just the first time I think that’s the aha moment. Yeah, it was my first time in this space that I saw that the pride that I take in my performance, and I get to see the look on all your faces in the crowd. I wish you guys could see it was the first time that I saw those two things online that make sense and go hand in hand. Yeah. And it’s just, I’m talking about fuel. This is exactly, this all I want to be doing now.
Yeah. And the cool thing about that QG is because now you have or you built like a niche, minimum viable community. Okay, that’s what we talk a lot about on the podcast. How do you build an initial audience around an idea, a theme that you have right that you work with the people have. Now you’re the example okay, you built a very niche very small cute, yet powerful minimum viable community. Cute. Yeah, cute. Of all Ethereum collectors of all Ethereum benefit right. From there, the stage is yours. Like you nurture this audience. You build this audience? Try to grow this audience in an organic very natural non pressure way. Right. Well, why is this like so big and why I’m so actually obsessed by this use cases because we talked about again, giving before taking, right we talked about mixing the online experience with the physical experience and having a collector collect something of you and then watching you perform in person, right. But the last part is the aha moment here.
How Crypto Provides Better Fan Based Data To Artists
Okay. Talk about data for a second.
Queen George: The musicians favorite topic.
The musician’s favorite topic right now on Spotify, on Apple Music, on YouTube, you’re very limited with the amount of data that you have, right? One you’re not giving the emails of your listeners, right. It’s actually very, very difficult. I think.
Queen George: There’s not an open channel between no supporters.
No, it’s very gated. It’s very walled and a lot of the ethos behind web three blockchain crypto, whatever buzzword you want to associate with. Its transparency, right? It’s borderless, right? And so, it comes with the data too. Okay. So, you got about 150, 200 collectors, you have their addresses, you have emails. Now let’s zoom out for me okay. You can start building a profile around every single address that you have, why? That wallet that they use to buy and collect your NFT it’s probably associated with many other things that they did on chain, other tokens that they hold, other communities that they’re a part of, other PFPs and NFT’s that they collect other governance proposals that they contribute to unchained. With time, you’ll be able to build complex data profile around these collectors. And you’ll might realize that wait, out of the 150 200 people that collected mine of T, 75 of them are actually enough WB Yeah, it may make sense because I have such a big FWD crowd, it may make sense actually do a collaboration with WB because we have such aligned interest. They have their audience that overlaps with my audience, right? You might realize that some of your people are actually like defi degenerates, meaning they love spending money on open protocols, experimenting with, etc, etc. That could tell you something else about them, right? So, you start building this really interesting data profile in a very non-intrusive way.
Queen George: Well, it’s the nature of this beast that we’re all in. I mean, that’s the whole point. It’s a tree with endless branches, you know, that’s the point.
So, the cool thing about this is, again, we’re so early into this entire thing, but it shows you the power of messing around with NF T’s soon and I don’t know if this platform exists and whoever’s listening, go build this platform.
Queen George: The thing this all week.
Like go build a platform we can we can build a profile around someone’s collectors. Right so you can see how many people are in FWD how many people are in for fun? How many people actually collect music NFT’s. What is their what is their net worth? Right? How long have they been in crypto for based off their wallet date? The list goes on and on and on and on. And you can actually understand who is your audience right beyond the audience that you’ve performed with in the valley. Right? And the people that love and support you since Day Zero? Yeah. That’s why it was super exciting for me to kind of go through this many used cases because that right there. That’s the future, the future of the music, the artists fan relationship.
Queen Geoge: Exactly. And you spoke earlier about how last year when we did this concert, everything was manual. And I still think we’re gonna have a couple more manual seasons. And I think that especially in this field of you know, getting to know my supporters and collectors. It’s all going to be hard work and it’s going to be tailored work to go in and get to know a person and then multiply that by 200. And that’s just the starting point, you know, until that platform exists. It will be so cool in retrospect to look back and go wow, I really, I really did the dig. You know.
Yeah. The next thing here is just consistency. Right? And trying to perform at every conference, tapping more into those communities doing live performances online, again, right? And being very thoughtful about how you do stuff yet not overthinking too much. And one thing that I like to talk about in the podcast is just try, just keep trying try. There are no rules. There is no expectations. Nobody really remembers your failures. Everybody just remembers the successes here.
Queen George: That’s been you know, I have to tell you, them that has been the biggest lesson in this space. For me. Like you grew up in LA, born and raised and in this system, where you think everyone cares, nobody gives a shit. In the and I mean that in the best way. Nobody gives a shit about you go flourish, conquer, fail. I mean, nobody wants to remember that. Nobody wants to say my friend failed, it sounds so horrible. But people want to say I know someone who did something great and we’ve seen that go off the deep end. You know, it’s getting get big headed, but it for the most part people want to see you shining. It’s just about do you believe that or not? And so, if any people that I know in web two music or listening to this, I think, you know, I really wanted to come on here today. You know, I know I’m a lot younger in this space than a lot of the people who might be listening or who I met this week and who I will connect with or any of my collectors are you even you know, it is very intimidating. It can be but I think when that aha moment happens, nobody gives a shit and people want to see you shine. I think the world is yours and I really want to encourage friends in web two to take control. I mean, there’s so many amazing resources in the traditional music industry. It’s obviously worked for this long. It’s brilliant. It really is. Is it. Is it a little gray? Is it a little too gray? Yeah, the waters a little muggy. Hard to swim. You know, so I encourage you to take control.
Yeah, you know why I also like this use case so much is because a lot of musicians coming into crypto, they see people selling stuff on catalog on sound on men songs on Zora those goes on and on. Making crazy money, right? People collecting songs for $4,000 for two and a half $700, it’s many musicians. That’s a lot of money and so many people, forget musicians but if we’re already focusing on musicians, many up-and-coming creative artists, struggling artists, that’s a lot of money. It’s a new, it’s a new avenue of independent freedom.
Queen George: Because you have people in traditional music ways that have 300 million streams in a song and work as waiters. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but that shouldn’t be the case. There shouldn’t be such a huge disconnect.
43:46: NFTs. The first time in history where we can truly value piece of art in its most organic and appropriate fashion and done so in a way where it’s traceable, you can recollect in Prosper off the resale value in the data again, the data behind all these transactions, all these interactions, all these collectors. That’s your focus, right? Yeah
Queen George: That’s where my focus is absolutely right now
44:16: So, what I was getting at is a lot of musicians coming into the space they focus on how do I find that first collector right? How do I make that first one easy sale? Why don’t try to think about it the other way. Why not just try to give first, right? Put on a show. sell tickets as NF TS create a minimum viable community of collectors in the Ethereum community hyperfocus, don’t need 1000 People, just need 50, 100 People, 10 People just to get the ball rolling.
Yeah, if we would have had this conversation a week ago. I think even a week ago I was still in the headspace of how do I find collectors and I just think this whole experience in the last week has been so potent. I can’t wait to see how many has happened in this respect in the next week or two. And especially as I focus on this data, you know, gathering all the information about my new plugs or like a new family, you know, whether or not they know I’m coming and I guess you just got to say you know not how do I find collectors, how do I let them find me? What can I, how do I let them find me? What do I do to come to them? That’s also what I was getting at adapting to this space instead of spending so much, much brain time trying to bring the old fans over. How do I let people in the space who want to find something cool that they connect with? How do I let them find me? So that’s, it’s a brilliant really question that you’re asking.
What are the Biggest Challenges Getting into the Space?
Let me ask you. So, you’ve been very active since April 2021. You’re starting with the first attempt at an NFT concert. What have been some of your biggest challenges. One. getting into the space and navigating through it?
Queen George: First and foremost, language. I felt like I went to again, the country analogy is just one that makes sense to me. And could make sense to anyone listening is no matter how advanced or new you’re in this. It’s like going to a different country where nobody speaks English. And then you get there and you’re frustrated as to why no one can understand you and why you can’t understand them. And you go God but I i am i do think I have so much to give. Why can I get it across? The first hurdle is language and the way to hop over that not even hop over it. The way to massage it through is just to read to learn. You hear words you don’t understand pause the podcast and Google it. You know, you see that someone posted something, I remember this happened to me a lot when I was first in web three Twitter. People would post like I just minted did it. I’m like, minted which, okay, I stopped everything. And like, what does it mean for something to be minted? Yeah, and I know that this might sound silly, but that’s the only way that I started to be able to carry on conversations in this space. So first, understand what the hell the language is about. The keywords, just the keywords there. It’s not rocket science. We’re dealing with, you know, at the end of the day, the goal here is simple to connect, and it just in a different way than what we’re used to, open you open your mind and learn the goddamn language. And then more things will make sense by just simply just showing up and coming to these conferences. So those were I think the biggest hurdles I think with
That’s the biggest hurdle is getting started.
Queen George: The biggest hurdle is getting started. Now I think I’m seeing the fruits of that homework. And I Eth Denver you know, this has been the first time at one of these in person events that I could carry a conversation that I’m passionate about and not passive about not like cool. Yeah, no, that’s a great Dao your work you know, as far as I’m concerned, it was the type of dumpling I mean, until I really understood and again, this might sound very funny and, and, and a hurdle. A big hurdle that I had to get over is feeling like a person that is good in conversation. And yes, I do think that I am an intellectual individual and at first, I did kind of feel stupid, but I’m zooming out and realizing that this is new territory for everyone and whoever tells you it’s not I mean, I’m just tripping is tripping or has been here for I don’t know how long you could possibly have been here, but that is the biggest hurdle at first. I think a lot of people listening to this who don’t know what the hell is going on. You know, I could understand that and are there. I’m still there. I think I think we all are, but that that would, I would say be the first hurdle that I experienced. I think an interesting perspective is not to fast forward it. Now that I’m just starting to understand a little bit of what’s going on. There are hurdles that I’m facing now, which I know with time are going to be smoothed out or how do I make this mainstream? I mean, I’m still a very.
Building a Mainstream Audience
What does mainstream mean to you?
Queen George: To me, mainstream means that anybody can understand this. But again, I think I touched on this earlier where I’m realizing now that I don’t need to worry about that. At this moment. So, this I’m talking to you. These are real time revelations for myself, that I really kind of sorted through this week where I came in here so focused and worried about how do I make the average person understand this right. I don’t come from it. I think it goes back to me also not coming from a family of musicians. I come from beautiful, awesome, hardworking parents who are just want to like see me shine. So, I think my life has always been very attuned to normalcy. Simple Life simplicity. I want everybody to be able to understand this. And what I’m realizing this week is that I can rid myself of that worry, because that will happen alone, and they’re not the same and they don’t need to be the same. And if my goal here is to connect, could do that in this space, and then with the people back home, still not there and that’s fine. So, I think that was a big personal concern. Like on a on a moral personal level, something that I kind of grappled with a lot, which now I have a little more clarity and so I’m interested to see when we circle back in a few months, if there’s been any.
First Time at a Crypto Conference: Biggest Takeaways
What have you been, what has been your biggest takeaways at Eth Denver so far? What did you, what did you expect coming to it? And I asked this because it’s your first true crypto conference. And honestly, also what a great crypto conference to kind of break into as your first time as well. Yeah. What were some of the expectations you had? What were some of your favorite moments? Talk to me through that.
Queen George: The expectations that I had were to feel like an outcast. And they tried to transcend past that. And I said, Thank God I’m singing because you put me on a stage anywhere and I’m automatically comfortable. So.
Oh my god, you know what comes to mind?
Queen George: What?
The catalog event that happened a few days after ours? It was like a live jazz band. And you walked in and you’re just like, a outer work space.
Queen George: The fish out of water start started swimming.
And you literally got on stage and give two fucks about anything and you like you guys know this. You guys know this tune? Alright 123.
Queen George: For about one song turned into five and
Then as you started singing all these people started like coming around you.
Queen George: Cuz it was really and natural and not. That is what I have been craving to see in this space. So, my expectation coming here was okay, I’m gonna feel like an outcast and I don’t know as much as they do. And then that fear started to manifest itself into hope and maybe you don’t need to adapt. Maybe you can just do what you’re good at, and people might fuck with it. And that could be cool. And so, I sing at your event, and that gave me so much more confidence. And suddenly that attracted people who also felt that way and felt creative in ways that they didn’t and I just started to meet people that also feel like other and feel like they have something to give that has not been done before. And then I’m like, Wait, that’s what this whole conference is for. So that fear that I had was essentially nothing to fear. It was just like everyone is coming here with another idea. And a new perspective. And that’s the whole Mo of the space. That’s what keeps the space alive. Yeah. Right. So, there was that and then just getting up at that event, like super spontaneously with the band. I got to see that in this, in this metaverse. I can just be myself and come as I am. And that there is someone for everyone and that there is someone who will connect to everyone and I don’t have to choose one. I don’t have to choose the authentic kind of live music style with an old band and you know, or the people poopoo people future you know, I don’t have to they there. Here lies a beautiful marriage of the two and that is something that I did not expect. I did not expect. I thought I would have to do 100 More backflips to adapt into this space and assembly. And it was just such a beautiful surprise to my surprise that that I didn’t have to and that there’s so much room for both.
Queen George’s Thoughts on Web3
Now that Eth Denver is like coming to an end. What are your overall thoughts? What would you do differently? Being a first-time steward in this community? Alright captain would you do differently?
Queen George: What would I do differently in terms of my recent choices or now moving forward?
You know, we’re like we’re sitting down. We’re having this conversation. You went through like, what? Eight days, seven nights of this stuff, we got in on Sunday, Sunday now. So, it’s been a week actually.
Queen George: What would I do differently? Not a goddamn thing.
What would you like? What would you advise other people? Okay, new artists, new creators, new individuals coming in experimenting and seeing everything that’s happening externally. And being super curious. Despite the insecurity that web three kind of imposes on a newcomer right or may impose on newcomer we just went through it. Tips.
Queen George: That’s also by the way to touch on why I wouldn’t change a thing because I wouldn’t know what to change, I am learning by doing every single, every second that I’m here is a new path for me. This is, so I don’t even know to tell you. Maybe in a few months, I might have more, I will have more on my resume therefore a wider spectrum of choices to have made. But right now, I’m still learning as I go. But I think advice. I’m circling it right back to the language thing as questions and but you know what? No, that’s bullshit. And I’ll tell you why. That’s bullshit. I didn’t know what to ask. I didn’t even know what to ask. Don’t even worry about asking questions there. Everyone told me at the beginning, ask questions, ask questions. And I would say okay, because I know that there’s so much wisdom and asking questions, and I didn’t know what to ask. So just show up. Be present. Just be present.
I think 50% of the effort just come to show your face.
Queen George: Show up. If that’s to someone’s Discord server, or if that’s to an event happening in a city near you. Just go, just go because it’s no different than being at a party and making a friend. And, you know, I’ve had many jobs in my life that were aren’t music still do and I’ve always worked in sales. And then one thing is talk to people like, you’re like be excited to answer the phones if your best friend is about to answer. The same applies here. People are people across the board, no matter how invested this space is in tech, and no matter how robotic people would like to be. We are still people with a pulse at the end of the day show up, like it counts. You look someone in the eyes and have a real conversation that still transcends leaps and bounds past any computer. And any web. I don’t care what you’re using. So, show up, show up, absorb, trust that you are smart enough and wise enough to absorb and trust that your curiosity does mean a lot about you and say a lot about your commitment to your vision and your vision. My dream, whether it’s through web three or anything else.
Web 4, web 16.
Queen George: Spider spider web, spider man, I mean, Charlotte’s Web I don’t care at this point. You know, I’m happy to be here. So, my point is I know it sounds funny but the destination is the same. To reach as many people as I can in a collaborative meaningful way. And this is such a rich means of doing so. So, show up. Trust that just because you showed up something good will happen to you. I promise you just show up. That’s it.
I love it.
Queen George: I really, I really can’t say that there’s more of a science to it
What can we expect from you next? What are you looking like what’s on your horizon, both for your web three community, for music.
Queen George: Well, so that album that I told you about any Made in France, that first project of mine is on the map to come out in a couple of months and simultaneously as all those songs are getting mixed and done, my inboxes are getting filled every day with new mixes, new drafts just for the final versions. We’re right there. We almost have them all. So simultaneously with that, also learning more about the space and I think my focus now is, you know now that I have no more people and I’m kind of building a community, although it is still small, small but mighty. How can I collaborate with the people who care about me? How can I make them heard, which I haven’t seen done too much. So, I have a couple ideas up my sleeve about how I want to let their daily experiences and stories. I’m big on stories. I want my, I want my supporter’s stories to be reflected in my art for us to bounce off of each other. So, I have a lot of a lot of ideas of how I want to do that. Maybe in the form of songwriting in the form of storytelling. I kind of know-how but I think I want to just do it first and then maybe talk about it in retrospect, but I know that it’s going to be in collaboration in the form of songwriting.
Outro
Amazing. Well George, thank you for being on.
Queen George: Thank you so much for having me. And till we meet again.
Till will meet again.
